Governor Pat Quinn took credit for several aspects of the state budget he just signed into law — closing prisons and other facilities and cutting Medicaid spending. But legislators didn’t give him everything he’d asked for.
When Quinn laid out his vision for the state’s budget, one of his priorities for this year was what he called “fundamental tax reform.”

QUINN “For too long, we’ve had a revenue code that looks like Swiss cheese, with plenty of loopholes for the powerful.”

Quinn said he thought Illinois could find more money by closing those so-called loopholes — one complicated proposal involved tax money from oil derricks in the Gulf of Mexico. That didn’t become law, and neither did any other idea to close “loopholes.”
Tom Johnson, with the Illinois Taxpayers Federation, says that’s not surprising.
He says the kinds of changes to the tax code the governor was referring to … are essentially tax hikes.

JOHNSON “The year after a major tax increase is not a year in which there’s much appetite to do more tax increasing. Especially in an election year, where all members of the General Assembly are running for re-election this year.”

Johnson says he wants Illinois to have a more consistent, predictable tax law.
A spokeswoman for Quinn says the governor still hopes to pursue loophole closures later this year.